Latewood was clearly the senior manager at the company, says John Elvidge.

She was obviously the boss to whom the staff deferred.

At the nursery, the baby room was for children up to the age of two, with parents not allowed in.

All rooms were fitted with CCTV cameras with a continuous livestream.

Ofsted last inspected the nursery in early 2022 and it was rated as "good".

However, the report did not inspect the sleeping arrangements of the children.

The prosecutor adds that the site's safe sleep policy was last updated in January 2022, however it "wasn't operated or apparently understood by the staff in the room".

Phil Mackie
reporting from Wolverhampton Crown Court

In a message sent a few days later, when Cookson and other staff had been arrested, Latewood said she thought the CCTV footage showed staff being “a bit heavy-handed” but she said she did not “get it” because “it wasn’t that bad”.

Image source, West Midlands Police

After Noah's death, Deborah Latewood said the sleeping bags at the nursery were called "infant pods" and staff supervised and stayed with the children, making sure their heads were not covered.

Staff used to record when babies were checked during sleep but they no longer did this and she said she did not know why this was.

Latewood added she believed that Noah's parents "swaddled him for cultural reasons".

At 15:17, the emergency services were called, the court heard.

Some members of staff started doing CPR with many seen to be in distress and Cookson was crying.

At 15:23, paramedics arrived and a critical care team followed them at 15:30.

Noah was taken to an ambulance at 15:52 and then on to hospital.

Despite the best efforts of hospital staff, the 14 month-old was pronounced dead at 16:15, the court was told.

At 14:32, Cookson looked into Noah's teepee for "about eight seconds".

Noah was still wrapped face down and his head was covered with a folded blanket, the court was told.

Half an hour later, another child crawled into the teepee and put his hand on Noah but there was no reaction.

A worker removed the other child without checking on the 14 month-old.

At 15:13, Noah was still inside with the blanket over his head.

Cookson then came to the teepee, looked towards Noah and adjusted items inside before looking at him.

Prosecutor Elvidge said this was the first physical check on Noah for two hours.

Cookson noticed he was unresponsive and removed him, taking him to the nappy-changing room.

The court is told that, after 13:12 on that day, Noah did not move again.

A worker checked on another child shortly afterwards, but did not check on him.

An hour later, Cookson reached into the teepee where he was asleep and took a blanket to place over another child's head.

More than an hour later, the video showed he was inside the teepee with his head still covered.

Cookson then entered the teepee, tidied items around him but did nott check on Noah.

Phil Mackie
reporting from Wolverhampton Crown Court

Eventually the CCTV footage shows Cookson once again trying to force Noah to sleep, again wrapping him tightly in blankets, and placing him face down - this time in a teepee covered in Christmas tinsel. he can be seen wriggling, clearly not asleep.

She puts her knee over him to stop him moving and, after seven minutes, Noah is still, and Cookson walks away.

At 13:00 GMT on 9 December 2022, the video goes on to show Noah moving, he is "thrashing around" as Cookson is attending to another child, the court heard.

In the following minutes, she continued to watch him struggle and when he rolled on to his side, she changed his position him, with Noah kicking his legs.

Three minutes later, Cookson put her left leg across the 14-month-old's body to restrict his movement, the prosecutor said.

He continued to struggle and she patted his back.

There was "occasional movement" at 13:08, the court heard, but Cookson pushed the sleeping bag tighter around him.

At 13:09, he was still moving but a minute and a half later, he was not.

"Kimberley Cookson, finally, after about seven minutes, removes her left knee from him," the prosecutor said.

She appeared to indicate to her colleague that she believed Noah was then asleep.

The court has seen a further video showing Noah crying, with nobody reacting.

The footage showed Cookson placing other children in sleeping bags - placing her leg on top at one point.

Noah was again wrapped tightly by the accused with the bag pulled up over his head.

At one point he was given a bottle by her to feed himself.

He was then placed face down and she could be seen tapping and rubbing him.

The CCTV footage then showed the nursery's cook walking past Noah and noticing that he had fallen off the cushion, which she then pointed out to Cookson.

The prosecutor said Cookson replied that she had not seen him.

The court heard she then picked up the 14-month-old, took a blanket from another child and put him back on the cushion without checking on Noah.

Then at 11:27 on the day, he was still there, face down, moving but nobody paid any attention to him.

Cookson saw him struggling and did not check on him, the prosecutor said.

She then picked him up and pulled the blanket away, causing him to spin several times and Noah seemed to be upset by this rough treatment.

Phil Mackie
reporting from Wolverhampton Crown Court

Later, the CCTV footage showed Noah, still wrapped up and lying face down on the cushion, but awake and struggling, while none of the staff pay him any attention.

At this point Noah slips off the cushion and falls to the floor.

Phil Mackie
reporting from Wolverhampton Crown Court

The CCTV footage shows Kimberley Cookson picking Noah up roughly, wrapping him in a sleep blanket and placing him firmly face down on a cushion.

A second blanket is placed over his head and Cookson repeatedly patting him on his back, again quite firmly.

Noah's mother, Masi Sibanda, is sitting with her head down in court and is not watching.

Video is now being played of Noah, still tightly wrapped, where he had been for an hour "struggling, but nobody comes to help him," the court hears.

Phil Mackie
reporting from Wolverhampton Crown Court

Kimberley Cookson is in tears in the dock as the CCTV footage is played in court.

It is showing what happened in the lead-up to Noah's death.

Image source, West Midlands Police

Warning: this post and video contains distressing material

Video is now being played to the court with the family remaining to watch.

Six children were in the nursery on the day, the prosecutor said.

Deborah Latewood was not working on the day of the 14-month-old's death.

Noah spent about 30 minutes standing, crawling, looking at a book and playing with other babies.

The footage demonstrated him to be, in his movements, an active little boy, said the prosecutor.

Part way through the footage, the nursery worker can be seen wrapping a child in a blanket and putting them in a teepee, lying the child on cushion and patting him on back - then that child crawled out.

Less than half an hour later, a worker lifted Noah and handed him to another lady who wrapped him in a blanket covering his head and placing him on a cushion.

He appeared to be upset, the prosecutor told the court.

He was wrapped tightly unable to move his arms, he added.

Noah attended the nursery five days a week, the court hears, but his parents became dissatisfied with the service, over changes of staff and Noah frequently being sent home with diarrhoea.

At the time of his death, they were actively looking for alternative childcare arrangements and had interviewed an au pair.

Noah was a "joy to be around" according to his family, the prosecutor tells the court.

The 14-month old "laughed easily, was not fussy or demanding, had a gentle manner, and was fine with adults out of the home".

His parents were attracted to the nursery's good rating by Ofsted and the fact that it had won a small business of the year award, the court heard.

On a visit to the nursery, staff told them they would "rock" children to sleep.

Noah's mother assumed that the absence of cots in the nursery meant that children were well trained and relaxed to the sleeping routine, the court hears.

The practices seen in the death of Noah were "habitual" at the nursery, the prosecutor told the court.

The nursery failed to ensure that staff were adequately supervised.

"No other person working in or supervising in or in the baby room challenged Kimberley Cookson about her actions that day," the prosecutor told the court.

He said analysis of CCTV footage showed "repeated examples" of the same sort of conduct by several members of staff.

Prosecutor John Elvidge is addressing the court setting out background to the case, reminding the court that the nursery and nursery worker have no previous convictions.

The nursery and worker have pleaded guilty, he adds.

Noah died as a result of being restrained by the worker inside a teepee, using her leg, and he was left covered and restrained for two hours, without any worker checking on him.

Phil Mackie
reporting from Wolverhampton Crown Court

Fifteen members of Noah Sibanda's family are here in the court.

There are 20 people in the public gallery who we assume are related to Cookson and Latewood.

Some CCTV will be played during the opening but there will be a pause to allow people to leave.